


Wake Me Up When It's All Over

by Tea__Bee



Series: Cuddle Prompts [5]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling, M/M, Nightmare, Semi-Platonic Cuddling, Whump, bed sharing, caleb's backstory, canon typical caleb trauma, no actual main character death, semi-graphic description of Caleb's parents' death, semi-graphic description of someone burning, widomauk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 04:44:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18024926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea__Bee/pseuds/Tea__Bee
Summary: Prompt # 5: For ComfortCaleb has a nightmareTitle from Wake Me Up by Aloe Blacc and Avicii





	Wake Me Up When It's All Over

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Addy and Eileen from the widomauk discord for helping with this one! You guys are amazing.
> 
> This Prompt now includes art!!! Thank's so so so much Heidi!!

_Fire, flying from his fingers like it's nothing, lights the thatched roof quickly._

_Smoke rises from the home into the night. The white shutters crack, falling from the windows as the hinges begin to melt._

_Screams fill the air as… as his parents wake up, being burned alive in… his childhood home._

 

Nott slipped through the open window of the inn into the room she was sharing with Caleb and wondered if he was still awake. She wanted to show him the new treasures she'd found on her jaunt through town, “Caleb?” She saw him shifting in his bed, a sheen of sweat on his skin and his arm outstretched. “Oh, no…”

She scurried over to his side as he started to hyperventilate.

 

His _family…_ his _home… His breath comes in short gasps._

_What is he doing? This is his family. His hands begin to shake at his sides._

_He has to save his family. From himself. From this horror_ he's _just caused. His heartbeat roars in his ears._

 

“Caleb, wake up. Caleb?” She shook his shoulder lightly. “Caleb, you're having a nightmare, you're safe, I've got you. Come on, Caleb…” He was in deep tonight, it seemed, and as she shook him harder, she saw him start to cry. “Dammit, Caleb, please!”

 

_He runs for the door, tears starting to stream down his face, but his hand burns as it lands on the brass knob, so he starts kicking the door frantically. He isn't strong enough, his father built the door too well, out of thick oak, too sturdy for him to possibly break through alone. And he is so very alone in this moment._

 

Caleb cried out in his sleep, pulling his hand back and breathing hard. Nott fussed around him, trying to figure out the best way to pull him out of it without Frumpkin, since they hadn't had the resources to bring him back recently.

 

_He runs to the window of the den, shattering the panes with his fist, and blood starts to stream from his knuckles and the cuts on the tops of his forearms, but he doesn't care._

_He starts breaking the rest of the glass away to climb in, looks around the familiar room and sees…_

_“Molly?”_

 

She heard him murmur Molly's name and stepped back, “Molly? You're… you're dreaming about Molly? Wh-what, why?” She hopped up and sat on the edge of the bed, near Caleb's head, and brushed a lock of hair off his face, “Caleb, wake up, come on.”

 

_“Molly!” He screams, pulling himself through the window into the smoke-filled room, watching the tiefling fall to his knees, pulling at his coat as he tries to remove the flaming garment from his skin. “Molly, ich komme!”_

 

Nott let out a frustrated sigh. She wasn't having any luck. After a moment of listening to him, hearing nothing but Molly's name and a smattering of Zemnian she didn't understand, she hopped off the edge of the bed and hurried out of the room.

 

_As he finds his feet and runs through the room, his legs burning with both effort and fire, the room extends in front of him, his mother's rose-covered rug stretching. He runs and runs, but Molly stays a few yards in front of him, in front of a tall bookshelf he and his father had built together to house the growing collection of his books years before, which starts to collapse behind him. Molly’s vibrantly colorful skin starts to almost melt away from his bones, and he falls to the ground as Caleb finally manages to reach him, too late, he's too late._

_Caleb cradles Molly's burnt form in his arms, “Nein, nein, nein ... Molly, was machst du hier?”_

_The building starts to crumble around him._

_"Molly, es tut mir leid... bitte, i-ich wollte dir nie weh tun, ich-"_

_“Caleb! Wake up, Caleb, I'm here! Caleb, please. C'mon, darling, wake up!” He hears Molly's voice echoing around him, but the man's singed lips don't move._

_“M-Mollymauk?” He looks around as color fades from the flames and the room around him. He looks down, and the same happens to Molly's body in his arms, his purple skin and his beautifully colorful tattoos fading to shades of muted gray. “Nein, Molly, bitte, bitte…”_

_“Yes, yes, Caleb, wake up, it's only a nightmare, please wake up for me? Come now, wake up.”_

 

Caleb woke with a sob, his breathing erratic. He saw Mollymauk above him, and realized the man was holding him in almost the exact reverse of how he had held the body in his dream. “ _Götter_ , Molly. Y-you… you're here? You're alright?” He reached a hand up to touch Molly's face to make sure he was real, then thought better of it, masking the movement awkwardly by changing directions quickly and running the hand through his hair.

Molly smiled as Caleb's eyes opened, looking blearily into his own. He rubbed his thumb through a streak of tears on the man's freckled cheek. “Of course, darling, I'm fine,” he held Caleb closer, resting his cheek on his hair.

A month ago, he'd never have thought he'd be able to show so much physical affection toward the shy wizard, as usually even joking verbal affection sometimes made the man uncomfortable, but ever since the warlock incident a couple weeks ago, they had gotten closer. Caleb had kept an eye on him for days after, peeking his head into his room while they were still at the inn, and sitting closer to him at taverns and around the campfire when they stopped for rest as they travelled. Molly assured him he was fine, but he still insisted on checking in. But while there had been an unexpected uptick in their friendship, there was also an underlying awkwardness, likely from how clingy Molly had been in his vulnerable state. They both remembered, but were both avidly avoiding the subject. Molly had started to apologize around fifty times, but each time he'd either been interrupted or he'd flat chickened out. He didn't want to think about Caleb being upset with him, couldn't stand the thought for some reason.

He felt Caleb's breathing finally slow and lifted his head to look at him. Caleb sat up, not moving away from Molly, just shifting as he calmed down and woke up a bit more. “Where is Nott?”

“She came and got me after you, ah, started saying my name, in your sleep,” Molly chuckled as Caleb blushed. “She told me you were having a nightmare, darling, I know you weren't dreaming of me in any _smutty_ kind of way, don't you worry.” He tipped his head back and laughed when Caleb only blushed deeper, his freckles nearly disappearing. “She said she'd let me take care of you, but only if I swore I'd help and not… garrote you in your sleep with my tail?” Molly chuckled as Caleb let out a startled scoff. “Her words, I swear, she's so imaginative. She's with the girls if you want me to get her.”

Caleb bit his lip and looked down, ashamed. “I'm sorry she woke you,” he mumbled. “I can't believe-”

“Caleb, it's _fine_ . I promise. I'm glad to help,” Molly had to interrupt the poor flustered man before he combusted. “I didn't have to follow her here, I could have just turned her away. _I_ wanted to come here. I _wanted_ to help you. I wanted to _be here for you_.” He sucked in a breath at how sincere his own voice sounded, shut his mouth with a snap, and looked into Caleb's widened eyes.

“I-I…” Caleb huffed out a breath, his eyes dropping to trace quickly over Molly's entire face, avoiding eye contact, and tried again. “Y-you, ah…” His gaze fell to Molly's lips. “Um.”

Molly felt his heart start to pound in his chest, like it was trying to escape. “Caleb?” He whispered, as if anything louder would scare the man away. He felt the man's jaw clench under his hand. He hadn't even realized his hand had stayed there this whole time. He took a deep breath, bit his lip, and ran his thumb across Caleb's jaw, as close to the man's lips as he dared.

Wide blue eyes flicked up to meet stunned red ones. The two men blinked at each other for a few tense moments, before Caleb cleared his throat, awkwardly looking down at his hands, Molly's hand falling away from his cheek. “I-it started off as a nightmare about my past, ah, about my parents.”

“Oh, Caleb,” Molly sighed, rubbing his shoulder through the thin fabric of his shirt. He could feel the warmth of his body through the light material. He shook his head, rattling the jewelry adorning his horns a bit with the motion. Then he paused, thinking for a moment, “Wait, how exactly did I factor into this? The only things Nott or I heard you saying were my name and a bunch of nonsense Zemnian.”

Caleb ran a hand over his own face and leaned his head on Molly's shoulder. “When I broke into the den, trying to save my parents… it wasn't them I was killing… it was you.” Molly gasped and blinked at Caleb as he continued, frantically, “I called out, I tried to save you, but no matter how hard I ran, y-you kept getting farther away. Molly, I tried so hard, I-I couldn't save you. By the time I got to you, I… I had killed you, Mollymauk. Y-you were dead in my arms, and I could do _nothing_.” He started to sob, curling further into Molly's chest, wrapping an arm around his waist, and pressing his forehead to the peacock tattoo running up his neck, startling Molly with his sudden closeness, goosebumps prickling his violet skin at the feeling of Caleb's breath ghosting across his collarbone. Molly tried to stay calm, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth before speaking.

“Darling, you didn't kill me,” he mumbled into Caleb's hair, wrapping both arms around him and rocking slightly. “It was all a terrible dream, but none of it was real. We're both here, we're alive, and we're fine.” He swallowed. “Here,” he pulled back as Caleb protested, taking the wizard's shaking hand in his and pressing it to his own chest above his heart. “Can't you feel that? My heart is beating. I'm right here, in front of you, and I'm alive, and you haven't hurt me at all.”

Caleb's lip trembled as he looked at their hands. He could feel the slightly fast, insistent thump of Mollymauk's heart beneath his fingertips, the warmth of his skin where his purple hand held his pale, freckled one. He could feel his chest rise and fall beneath his partially unlaced top as he breathed, waiting for Caleb's response, “ _Ja_ , I feel…” Their eyes met again and Caleb's breath started to even out again as he instinctively matched his breath to Molly's. “I can feel your heartbeat, yes. I-I am glad.” He whispered, “I wouldn't, ah, that is, I would never want to hurt you, Mister Mollymauk.”

Molly let out a soft chuckle, “I'm glad to hear it, Mister Caleb. I would never want to hurt you, either.” He dropped a kiss onto Caleb's hair before he even thought the action through. Caleb stiffened for a moment in his arms before looking up at him.

“Molly…” He hesitated.

“Ah… Yes, dear?” Molly held his breath, worried he'd overstepped. _Too far, you soft idiot_.

“I-I, ah… just, well. Thank you. For coming to help me. You did not have to, but you came when Nott asked.”

He let out a relieved sigh, “Well, I guess I'm just returning the favor, right? You didn't have to help me, either, but you stayed with me, when I reached out for you.”

Caleb worried the corner of his bottom lip between his teeth before speaking again, “Why me? Why did you take so much comfort in... In such a garbage person as me, Mollymauk? In such a vulnerable moment?”

Molly thought for a moment, taken aback by the question. “I... I'm not sure, really. You seemed, well, safe, a-and right? I don't know why, Caleb. I just did. I wanted… I-I needed you there.” They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, arms still wrapped around each other in a light embrace. “Now, it is still very early, the sun isn't even out yet.”

“It is only ten past four in the morning.” Caleb said, making Molly laugh delightedly.

“Yes, well, I think you should try and get some more sleep,” he said, moving to get out of Caleb's bed.

Caleb reached out before he could stop himself and took Molly's hand, “Can you stay?” He asked, shocking them both.

Molly turned back to face him, looking down with a surprised smile. “You don't want me to get Nott?”

Caleb took a deep breath and squeezed his hand, before pulling him back to sit on the bed again. “No, I don't think that's necessary.”

Molly blinked at him for a moment, before nodding and tucking his feet under the blankets,  laying his head down and making sure to keep what distance he could on the small inn bed.

Caleb lay next to him, looking up at the ceiling for a long moment, before turning to face Molly, draping his arm over the tiefling's waist and scooting closer. Molly pressed his forehead to Caleb's, “Get some sleep. I'll be here.”

Caleb smiled softly at him and closed his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah! It's finally here! I loved writing this one sooo much!! Leave a comment, tell me what you thought!  
> Love always  
> J
> 
> Zemnian translations:
> 
> ich komme = I'm coming  
> nein = no  
> was machst du hier = what are you doing here  
> Es tut mir leid = I'm sorry  
> bitte = please  
> ich wollte dir nie weh tun= I never wanted to hurt you


End file.
